Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Equilibrium cluster phases and low-density arrested disordered states: the role of short-range attraction and
Francesco Sciortino1, Stefano Mossa, Emanuela Zaccarelli
1Dipartimento di Fisica and INFM Udr and Center for Statistical Mechanics and Complexity, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
We study a model in which particles interact with short-ranged attractive and long-ranged repulsive interactions, in an attempt to model the equilibrium cluster phase recently discovered in sterically stabilized colloidal systems in the presence of depletion interactions. At low packing fractions, particles form stable equilibrium clusters which act as building blocks of a cluster fluid. We study the possibility that cluster fluids generate a low-density disordered arrested phase, a gel, via a glass transition driven by the repulsive interaction. In this model the gel formation is formally described with the same physics of the glass formation.
Related Concept Videos
Van der Waals Interactions
Intermolecular Forces
Intermolecular Forces
The Equilibrium Binding Constant and Binding Strength
The Equilibrium Binding Constant and Binding Strength
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
